lurkers-guide/guide/097

<!-- TITLE In the Kingdom of the Blind -->

<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
Byron's telepaths present the Interstellar Alliance with an ultimatum.
Londo and his bodyguard visit Centauri Prime.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Downes,+Robin+Atkin">Robin Atkin Downes</a> as Byron.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?London,+Damian">Damian London</a> as Regent.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Ogilvy,+Ian">Ian Ogilvy</a> as Lord Jano.
</blockquote>

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/097">8.54</a>

Production number: 509
Original air date: March 18, 1998
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle
</pre>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@890331630 Someone is secretly using Centauri war cruisers to stage
	random attacks on the cargo vessels of all the Alliance worlds.  The
	Alliance is aware of the attacks, but doesn't yet know of the Centauri 
	connection.

   <li>@@@890331630 The Centauri Regent continues to be controlled by his
	Keeper
	(<a href="073.html">"Epiphanies."</a>)
	He has started drinking heavily, something he never did in the past,
	and, like Captain Jack
	(<a href="076.html">"Racing Mars"</a>)
	occasionally lets slip that something is wrong, even getting as far
	as asking a palace guard to kill him.

   <li>@@@890331630 The Keeper, in turn, appears to be under the control of
	as-yet-unidentified aliens lurking in the shadows on Centauri Prime.
	The aliens, according to the Regent, believe they have a lot in
	common with Londo, and in fact have already thwarted one attempt to
	assassinate Londo.  They appear to be telekinetic (though whether by
	psi or technological means is unclear.)

   <li>@@@890331630 Byron has attempted to blackmail the Alliance into giving
	his people a homeworld by using his people to scan the minds of all
	the ambassadors, allegedly gathering a stockpile of sensitive
	information.  His threat to make all the information public has
	backfired and erupted into violence at least once.  Now the Alliance,
	including Sheridan, is clamoring for Byron's arrest, and most of his
	people (including Lyta) have sealed themselves into a small section of
	Brown Sector in an attempt to hold out as long as they can and give
	cooler heads time to prevail.  A militant faction of telepaths has left
	the group and promises to take a more active approach, sabotaging
	station operations if necessary until the Alliance capitulates.

</ul>

<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@890331630 Is the Regent dead?

   <li>@@@890331630 Who were the aliens?  (See
	<a href="#AN.aliens">Analysis</a>)

</ul>

<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@890332320 <a name="AN.aliens">The aliens were almost certainly</a>
	allies of the Shadows.  They're also almost certainly behind the
	attacks on Alliance ships, which bear some resemblance to the Shadows'
	tactics: random strikes of no seeming military value, designed
	apparently to demoralize the Alliance and cause conflicts within its
	ranks.  They also appear to have the ability to turn invisible,
	a signature Shadow technological trick.

	<p>
	Are the aliens related to the Drakh, or are they a totally different
	Shadow ally?  If the latter, how many ally races did the Shadows have?

<p>
   <li>@@@890332320 Are the aliens telepathic as well as telekinetic?
	Ironheart implied that only telepaths can be telekinetic
	(<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)
	But of course that might only apply to Vorlon-induced telepathy.
	As Byron told his people, on some worlds telepaths evolved naturally,
	and those worlds might have evolved telekinesis.  It's also possible
	that the aliens stopped the knife from hitting Londo via some
	technological means, rather than via psi power.

<p>
   <li>@@@890333825 Lord Vole might have also been behind the previous attempt
	on Londo's life
	(<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>)

<p>
   <li>@@@890332320 The militant faction of telepaths is much more likely
	than Byron's faction to hold Garibaldi hostage
	(<a href="088.html">"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."</a>)
	They aren't opposed to the use of violence to get what they want,
	and they're loose on the station; Byron's people will, by his own
	admission, eventually be reached and arrested unless the Alliance
	decides otherwise in the meantime.

<p>
   <li>@@@890332320 Sheridan still sits behind the "Earth Alliance" placard
	at Council meetings.  Is he the Earth Alliance representative?  If
	not, who is, and why wasn't that person present at the council?
	Given that Sheridan is still held in contempt by some people back
	on Earth, it seems like an unacceptable conflict of interest for him
	to represent both Earth and the Alliance as a whole.

</ul>

<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@878893197 The title is probably a reference to a line by Gerard
	Erasmus: "In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
	The one-eyed Keeper on the Regent seems the most likely king in
	this case -- certainly it appears to be in control.  G'Kar is
	another possibility, of course.

   <li>@@@890332320 Continuity glitch: Byron and Lyta spoke as if their
	first lovemaking
	(<a href="095.html">"Secrets of the Soul"</a>)
	had occurred the night before.  But that would mean Rebo and Zooty's
	arrival, and the Day of the Dead, took no time at all.  The
	discrepancy, of course, is simply due to
	<a href="096.html">"The Day of the Dead"</a>
	being moved from its original intended air date.

</ul>

<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>
<ul>

   <li>@@@893013539 <em>Revealing that the Centauri were behind the attacks
	spoiled the surprise.</em><br>
	Y'know, maybe you should wait to see how this pans out before you say
	it's a problem.  I *wanted* the audience to know the Centauri are behind
	this, for reasons that will become clearer in the episodes that follow.

	<p>
	Again, with this show, it ain't the who or the how, it's the *why*.

</ul>